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Poverty Waltz

Artwork by Bettina Krieg via AXS ART

My grandmother said that
Back in her day there was so much
poverty it learned
how to dance.
It was Modena, Italy, 1944 when
She started splitting her meals with
Her puppy Bobby and her best friend
Fell in love with an Australian soldier.

My grandmother
walked barefoot to a
barn party to avoid ruining
her tango shoes and only let that boy
twirl her when the chaperone
was turned the other way. The barn floor
Creaked under their weights because
It covered a bomb shelter the farm
Family used when the alarm sounded in the distant village.
They left their windows open at
Night to make sure they heard it or the screams.

My grandmother met my grandfather when
She was fourteen and he was eighteen but
Love sees no age it saw how
My grandmother swayed and how my
Grandfather wanted to sway with her and so
He pulled at her skirt and robbed poverty
Of its dance partner.

My great grandmother said that
There was no place for a woman like
Home so she woke my grandmother at
Five a.m. on Sundays because sure it’s
A holy day but holy cow do these floor
Need to be washed and your future husband
Can wait in the backyard.

My grandmother said they were locked in a death dance because
They started to waltz under the hay
roof of the barn and only
Stopped the night my grandfather died and
Then misery returned
for its dance partner.

__

Margherita Bassi is studying creative writing, history, and French in her final year at Boston College. She is an aspiring fiction novelist but is also passionate about poetry. Her favorite book at the moment (it changes on a monthly basis) is Le Cose che nessuno sa by Allesandre D’Avenia. Margherita is a big fan of Shakespeare jokes, coffee with lots of cream and sugar, horses, and working on a big desk next to clean windows with lots of sunlight.

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